NRS Healthcare - Care homes page

Information for care homes

The Kent Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES) is provided by NRS Healthcare and is jointly commissioned by Kent County Council (KCC) and NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (KMICB).

NRS Healthcare are responsible for the delivery, collection, maintenance, and repair of loaned equipment. Wherever possible, collected equipment is recycled for reuse by other people in Kent, having been fully checked and sanitised for safety.

Care homes have a responsibility to provide equipment in line with the business they offer. However, there are some circumstances where NRS Healthcare can assist in the short term loan of equipment (up to 6 weeks).

For any enquiries about equipment in your care home, you can contact our Customer Services Team through the contact form here or by calling or emailing the Customer Services Team.

Frequently asked questions

How long is equipment available to a resident?

Any equipment loaned to care homes through the ICES is usually available for a 6-week loan basis. After that, the care home will be expected to provide the equipment, having returned the loaned item(s) to NRS Healthcare. If the resident needs loaned equipment for longer, please contact our Customer Services Team.

How do I return loaned equipment for recycling?

When a resident no longer needs equipment, please contact our Customer Services Team. We will arrange to collect the equipment free of charge so that we can loan it out to another person who needs it after it has been fully checked and sanitised.

Please remember to return any accessories (such as batteries, chargers, slings, carry bags etc) that came with the equipment and have these ready for the collection team.

What do I do if loaned equipment breaks down?

If you have a problem with loaned equipment or it stops working, you can contact our Customer Services Team. We will either repair the item or replace it free of charge, depending on the type of equipment.

Our out of hours service provides emergency repairs to hoists, beds or mattresses. This operates from 6pm until midnight (last call-out). You can find contact details here.

If any equipment in your care home needs servicing, one of our Customer Services Team will contact you to arrange this.

What happens if a resident is moving out of the care home?

If a resident is moving out of the care home, please let us know in plenty of time before the move by completing our contact form or by calling our Customer Services Team.

Equipment on loan to a resident in your care home must not be taken to another location. The practitioner who prescribed the equipment for the resident and our Customer Services Team will help arrange for the right equipment to be provided by the relevant provider in the resident’s new location.

It may be possible to take some items to the new residence, but this must first be authorised by Kent ICES and the area that the resident is moving to. Please speak to the practitioner who prescribed the equipment or call our Customer Services Team to discuss this.

Feedback

We aim to deliver a first-class service to all the people that we meet. We see all feedback, whether good or not so good, as a valuable way to learn and improve services. You can send compliments, comments and complaints through the Contact Form below.

Compliments

We love to hear good news stories from you when you have had a positive experience with one of our services, particularly where our staff have gone over and above your expectations. Acknowledgement of good service is a positive way to learn from you. Details of all compliments received will be shared with the staff members and team concerned, as well as at management level.

Comments

People who use the ICES service generally have the best ideas about how to improve it. We therefore welcome all comments about any experiences you have had or ways in which you may think we could do things better are welcomed. If you make a comment, this will be logged and passed to the relevant department or partner to act as necessary.

Complaints

We accept that although we do everything possible to ensure that you are treated fairly and properly as we would wish a member of our family to be treated, sometimes things can go wrong. It’s important that you tell us if you’re unhappy. All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence and we always aim to resolve them quickly and, where possible, correct any mistake straight away.

We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as we receive it and will tell you who is going to review your complaint. If we can resolve your concerns immediately and you are happy for us to do so, we will tell you straight away what action we intend to take. If we can’t, we will come back to you and let you know when we aim to respond to your complaint in full.

After we have responded to your complaint we will contact you again to check you’re happy with the outcome and you feel that your complaint was handed fairly and properly.

Please note: we will respond during our opening hours (8am-6pm Monday to Friday; 8am-4pm Saturday).

Kent Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES)